Ashwin Batish

Bridging Music Gap of Classical Indian, Popular Western

By Ashfaque Swapan
Special to India-West Magazine

Santa Cruz, California:- With the sea of change in cultural attitudes
that the '60s ushered in, one gratifying aspect for South Asians was
the groundswell of interest in Indian culture. Hand in hand with an
interest in Hindu spiritualism came an interest in Indian music and
performing arts, and Indian giants like Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar
Khan were happily at hand to cater to the mainstream interest with
the best that Indian classical music had to offer.

The chasm between Western popular and the sedate, ponderous world
of Indian classical music is not an easy one to bridge, however.
Western popular music is geared to meeting the needs of a fast-paced
lifestyle: It's immediate, sensuous, and hits the senses with a bang.
How, then, does one initiate a Western teenager to the charms of
Indian classical music where intricate melodies are woven with painstaking
delicacy?

Meet Ashwin Batish, a brash feisty sitar player who carries a sitar
in his arms and sports a cap that sits on his head at a raffish angle
and fearlessly champions, in so many words, "Sitar Power."

Batish has just released a CD, "Sitar Power II," that follows the
runaway success of his previous venture, "Sitar Power I," which served
Indian classical music in short savory helpings with a tangy dressing
of guitar, drums and synthesizer.

TOOK OFF

"Sitar Power" took off, thanks to a dash of marketing savvy. In 1987,
when Batish was ready to release his CD, he pressed a single and
mailed it to radio stations and music fans. National Public Radio
stations and college radio stations picked it up, and soon Batish's
music attracted adulatory attention. It was picked up by "All Things
Considered" on NPR, and bought by an Independent record company.

"Indian music is a niche market," Batish told India-West.
He adds that he hardly thought of hitting the market then - "I
was kind of goofing around. I did it more for our own joy and fun."

"Batish is a supple improviser," wrote the Village Voice, "and
thank God he wears a silly grin, not a shaman's dour expression."

"His skillful playing and the sitar's spidery tingling tone make 'Sitar
Power' a light entertaining diversion," wrote the Los Angeles Times.

BRIDGING THE GAP

Batish's life, it would seem, had prepared him ideally to bridge the
gap between mainstream popular Western music and classical Indian
music.

Shiv Dayal Batish, his father, has had a long and distinguished career
on All India Radio, and by the 1930s was an established music director
for hindi films. The elder Batish had received the Tansen award for
music (best vocalist).

The young Batish, meanwhile, was falling captive, as were people around
the world, to the charms of the Beatles, In India, the Beatles
were big then," Batish recalled. "We had Christian neighbors who had
a lot of rock and roll stuff and wild parties at night."

Growing up in a musically inclined family meant, however, that the
younger Batish was exposed to classical music. The elder Batish would
perform in concerts, and "I would be tagging along," he adds. I
was more of a listener then."

Then, somewhat serendipitously, Shiv Dayal Batish moved to the United
Kingdom. While playing at a festival in Wales, Cardiff, he impressed
Lord Fenner Brockway, who then helped him immigrate to U.K.

Ashwin soon followed, and interestingly, it was during his stay in
England that he seriously began to learn the sitar. There was also
the family reputation to consider. He used to attend concerts with
his father. "I'd get invited to play," Ashwin recalls. as Batish's
son I was expected to do something serious. I practiced two to three
hours a day for about five years."

CALIFORNIA

In California, the mood of the 60s had already spawned an intense
interest in Indian culture, and Ashwin's father came to teach music
at the University of California in Santa Cruz in 1970. The family
moved to California in 1973.

Soon the Batish Institute of Music and Fine Arts was born in Santa
Cruz. The Batishes also tried their hand at running a restaurant,
which started off after the fulsome praise that inevitably followed
when Americans sampled his mother's cooking. Ashwin played almost
daily at the restaurant.

The institute today has flowered into a full fledged training center
that offers educational videos in tabla and sitar by Ashwin, harmonium
produced by both father and son, and audio cassettes and CDs of ragas.
And, as one delves into the charms of Indian classical music, one
can add a dash of desi flavor, literally, by getting a 4 oz.
pack of chai tea masala, "Bless My Soul."

Ashwin has also embraced cyberculture with gusto. It started when
he was exploring fusion music. He bought a synthesizer and an IBM
computer to write music. The computer came in handy when his father
wrote Raag-o-pedia, a compedium of over 650 raag scales notated in
Western staff and Indian sargam notations.

Today the Batish Institute has a free server on the Internet. The
Institute can be reached by email at info [at] batish.com.
Its World Wide Web site URL is http://batish.com.

And the correspondence comes flowing in from all over the United States.
With the release of "Sitar Power II," Batish appears bullish. "We've
got tremendous response. Everybody sees I've also grown."

His mission to promote Indian music continues. "When you come to a
different country, you have to invite people to listen. I want to
bring in people to listen to a different kind of music, offering,
at the same time, in a form they are used to.